Письмо 45
The Mystery of Providence
We must accept the trials of life as signs of God's mercy rather than questioning His hidden purposes.
Glory to God for everything! You want to understand why the Lord has allowed those of other faiths to oppress the Orthodox for so long. How could we reach the heights and look into God's deep thoughts!✦ It's not for us to know the times and the seasons.✦ Do you see what our understanding is like? They predict fifteen degrees of warmth in the calendar, but it turns out to be twenty degrees of frost. And that's just in ordinary things. . . And as for the ways of God, how could we ever grasp them? “The Lord disciplines the one he loves.✦ And he scourges every son he receives” (Heb.✦ (Heb. 12:6). Isn't that enough for us? Sufferings are a sign not of rejection, but of mercy.
The Path to Blessedness
Focus all your efforts on reaching the eternal blessedness of heaven, regardless of the difficulty of the journey.
You needed that dream. Imprint on your heart the words someone said to you: "There are no words to describe the blessedness that is there." . . Let us put all our care into this, so that we may reach there—or even if we only crawl there on shells.1 Help us, Lord!
The Danger of Praise
Beware of the snare of human honor and praise, which can subtly corrupt the heart.
I'll say it again: beware of praise. What should you do? Reproach yourselves more, and still more, pray to the Lord that he plant deep humility in your heart. Now, believe from experience what St. Isaac the Syrian said in his first Discourse: "Hardly will a person be found who could bear honor without an interior change." Look at what the Evil One has invented!2 And that this is he, believe the testimony of St. John Climacus (Discourse 26, § 7).3 Bear with it. This seems to be the final snare—a dangerous one that lasts a long time. Lord, help you stand firm!
Spiritual Nourishment
Use spiritual reading to order your life and share the fruit of that wisdom with others.
P.4 S. Here are two more pieces for you: the Margarit and an instructive word from an elder.5 What won't you find in them! Both the inner and outer order of life are fully explained—and from different perspectives and using different ways of speaking, at that. Feed on this bread, and when the chance comes, share it with others! The point is, if you don't manage to put what you've read into practice yourselves, the Lord may have mercy on you because others, to whom you read it, will put it into practice. I'll go back over it, clean it up, and soon send you the rest of what there is as well.
Read the original Russian
Все слава Богу! Вам желательно разгадать, чего ради Господь столько времени позволяет иноверцам угнетать Православных. Где нам досягать до высоких и зреть глубокия помышления Божии! Несть наше разумети времена и лета. Видите, каково наше разумение? Пророчат (в календаре) 15 градусов тепла, а выходит 20 градусов мороза. И это в обычных вещах. .
. А до путей Божиих куда нам? «Его же любит Господь, наказует. Биет же всякаго сына, его же приемлет» (Евр. 12:6). Не довольно ли этого для нас? Страдания – знак не отвержения, а милости.
Ваш сон был нужен вам. Напечатлейте в сердце слова, которыя некто сказал вам: «Слов нет изобразить то блаженство, которое там». . . О сем заботы все приложим, да достигнем туда, или хоть на ракушках доползем. Помоги, Господи!
Еще повторю: остерегайтесь же похвал. Что делать? – Укоряйте сами себя более, а паче Господу молитесь, чтоб поселил глубокое смирение в сердце. Поверьте теперь опытно, что сказал св. Исаак Сирианин в первом Слове: «едва ли найдется человек, который мог бы вынести честь, без изменения внутренняго». Вот какую вещь выдумал лукавый! А что это он, поверьте свидетельству св. Иоанна Лествичника (Слово 26, § 7).
Потерпите. Это, как видится, последняя уловка, но опасная и долго длящаяся. Помоги вам, Господи, устоять!
P. S. Вот вам еще две статьи: Маргариты и поучительное слово старца. Чего вы здесь не найдете! И внутренний, и внешний порядок жизни весь растолкован и притом с разных сторон и в разных оборотах. Питайтесь сим хлебом и с другими при случае поделитесь! Это за тем, чтоб в случае, если самим не придется выполнить прочитаннаго, Господь помиловал вас за то, что то выполнят другие, которым вы прочитаете. Пересмотрю, перечищу и скоро пришлю вам и остальное, что есть.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.55.8-Isa.55.9;Rom.11.33 — For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways, declares the LORD. Isa.55.9 — For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Rom.11.33 — Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways!
- ↩Acts.1.7 — But he said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority."
- ↩Heb.12.6 — For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he scourges every son whom he receives.
- ↩Heb.12.6 — For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he scourges every son whom he receives.
Notes
- 1 ↩«на ракушках доползем» is a vivid colloquial image of painfully slow progress (literally crawling on shells); kept as a concrete image rather than flattened to a generic 'inch by inch.'
- 2 ↩лукавый rendered as 'the Evil One' (the devil); also means 'the crafty/cunning one'.
- 3 ↩Слово rendered Discourse to match the Russian title form; English readers of The Ladder often know this unit as Step 26.
- 4 ↩Bare initial "P." in the source; with the following "S." it is most likely the first half of a P.S. (postscript) marker, not a full sentence.
- 5 ↩"Маргариты" is taken as the Margarit ("Pearl"), the traditional title of a Chrysostom collection, not a personal name Margaret.
Letters on the Christian Life companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit